Wireless networks are telecommunications networks that use radio waves to carry information from one node in the network to one or more receiving nodes in the network. Cellular telephony is characterized by the use of radio cells that provide radio coverage for a geographic area, with multiple cells arranged to provide contiguous radio coverage over a larger area. Wired communication can also be used in portions of a wireless network, such as between cells or access points. Wireless communication technologies are used in connection with many applications, including, for example, satellite communications systems, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones, user equipment). Users of such applications can connect to a network (e.g., the Internet) as long as the user is within range of such a wireless communication technology. The range of the wireless communication technology can vary depending on the deployment.
The first generation of wireless telephone technology used analog mobile phones in which analog information signals were modulated and transmitted. In second generation (2G) systems, digital information signals were used to modulate a carrier. These 2G technologies used time division multiplex access (TDMA) technology for GSM systems, or code division multiple access (CDMA) technologies for IS-95 systems to distinguish multiple users. Such networks were further upgraded to handle higher-speed packet data using GPRS/EDGE and then HSPA, and CDMA 1x-EVDO (IS-856) in networks referred to as 2.5G and 3G networks. Generally, two parallel standards were developed for mobile devices with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) developing GSM/UMTS/HSPA and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) cdmaOne (IS-95)/CDMA2000 (IS-2000)/EVDO (IS-856) technologies. The next evolution is 4G technology, which is referred to as long term evolution-system architecture evolution (LTE-SAE) and uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology. While LTE is being developed under 3GPP, carriers that implement 3GPP2 standards have announced that they intend to use LTE as their 4G solution, rather than a 4G standard developed under 3GPP2. It is expected that carriers that implement 3GPP2 standards would implement LTE while keeping the infrastructure compatible with 3GPP2 standards because there would still be 3G-only (and even 2G-only) compliant users.